Battle For Salvation Apocalypse Game: Prepare For Glory!

www.battleforsalvation.com

Some will compete for personal glory…

Others in the name of the God Emperor…

Some to protect a dying race…

Others to bring the enlightenment of the greater good…

All will meet the challenge of the Battle For Salvation Tournament Apocalypse game being held on October 10th...

On Sunday I Fritz will be hosting a giant Apocalypse game to rival all games open to all tournament attendees. Just show up with your 2K point army following the standard 40K force org chart and you are ready to roll! Here is the breakdown of the game…

New and existing players are able to enter the game at the start of each round by bringing their entire army on as if they were in reserves, along with outflanking and deep striking if desired and available. As each unit is destroyed it gets removed from the table and once a players entire army is wiped out, it has the option of rejoining the battle from recycling back in from reserves. This allows each player to participate in the battle for as long or as little as they like, as the game will run throughout the day till the end of the tournament. Battle For Salvation army event rules will still apply- all models need to be appropriately painted and modeled “as-is”, etc.

Scattered across the table will be five clearly marked objectives. At the end of each round the side that controls the most objectives (using 40K 5th edition rules to capture/control/contest) wins that round and each players on that side gets a free raffle ticket for the grand prize drawing at the end of the game- a super heavy model/kit.

But wait, that’s not your only chance for personal glory…

There will also be three “bonus” objectives that I will be keeping score of throughout the day, and at the end of the day the person who has the most points for each objective wins a prize and the honors that go with it:

Headhunter Award: Awarded to the player who kills the most HQ choices throughout the game.

Tank Buster Award: Goes to the player who destroys the most AV 12+ tanks throughout the day.

Star Killer Award: Awarded to the player who destroys the most super heavy vehicles/tanks throughout the day.

Super heavies?

Glad you asked. Scattered about the table will also be a number of super heavy vehicles which are powered down at the start of the game and count as impassible terrain. The first player to get an infantry unit/model close enough to embark the vehicle will then control it during the game until it is destroyed. Datasheets and specs will be provided for each super heavy.

Finally, if that isn’t enough glory and fast paced action each side will draw three random Apocalypse asset cards (possibly like the dreaded vortex grenade) to use once throughout the day…

BFS Apocalypse: Prepare for glory!

The club is no stranger to Apocalypse madness so expect some awesome tables and eye candy, here are some past events to get you pumped up!

Blood Angels: Something More?

So myself and Jawaballs have been asking the question- Blood Angels, something more? What I mean by that is look at the current state of the space vampires in 40K- sure razorspam works, tri-dakka preds, etc. but is this really the “best” that they can do? I should also perhaps define best.

There is no disputing these lists that can be played by the three marine ‘dexes are strong, but they are generic in how they approach the game- reducing it to pure mathhammer. The fact that all three codexes can build the list with more or less the same results proves this. But again is this best?

I think the best list for a codex (my definition) is one that is built on a strong principal, but also uses the inherent codex rules and abuses to leverage the army in such a way that if you don’t see it coming it is going to lay waste to you- and it should be something that isn’t easy to see. In the BA .PDF days I watched Jawaballs destroy baby seals and Leet/WAAC players and left right with his furioso drop pod list. We want to get back to this, capture, mine, refine and put down on the table this essence for Blood Angels, AND it seems like the “community” for the most party has stopped looking at the BA ‘dex since the “best of” it has already been published on the net/netlists.

What is the list?

Don’t know yet.

Still playing around with some stuff, I’m mainly cannon fodder and feedback in the process for JB, but this is why having a bud/teammate in 40K is key- someone you can try stuff out on, and not have to worry about hurt feelings or ego.
What we have been playing with is a dual hammer list.

6 furioso with Mepheston running up the table, backed by sixty assault marines. We are also working on an alternate to replace Mepheston since certain tourneys have banned him, but he is a keystone in the list.

More to come, and I’m sure more to come on JB’s blog.

Hopefully he will be set to lay the hurt at Mechanicon next month.

Save Me From Myself!

So I’m all set to bring my harlequins to the Battle For Salvation GT. I’ve been through the missions, got in a few test games, formulated a plan. Everything is set to go, and then I wind up talking to Brother Captain James last night at the club bouncing off ideas about his Space Marine list and I’m like, man I really want to play my Black Templars now. That’s the problem of having more than a few “fun” armies.

Thanks allot BC James and you guys from Germany aren’t helping me out either...

I did promise myself I wasn’t going to play Necrons this time, but I’m eager to try out the nightmare/morale chain BS that makes units run 18+” a turn.

…and of course there are Grey Knights. I’ve been promising you guys I’d roll with them in the next tourney.

Maybe it’s time for a blog poll?

2000 PTS Necrons

Dear Fritz,

I have read a lot of your Necrons posts and have started looking for the older posts. I am happy to see some one else fighting to keep Necrons up and fighting in 5th ed. Thanks for your hard work, and glade to see i am not the only one still running the old 2ed Necrons.

OK hear is my reason for the e-mail, my army list and your tack on it.

Necrons 2,000

Deceiver
Lord; Destroyer body, Phase Shifter, Res Orb War Scythe
Pariahs (5 man squad)
Warriors (11 man squad)
Warriors (11 man squad)
Warriors (11 man squad)
Wraiths (3 man squad)
Wraiths (3 man squad)
Monolith
Monolith
Total 2,000
Phase out 10

Unit roles:
Deceiver: Redeploy if needed, LD & Pinning tests, & Heavy assault unit.
Pariahs: Support unit to the Deceiver. Note I have found 4 to 5 man squad is cheap enough to field and small enough that most players don't see it as a threat until I start stacking powers.

Wraiths & Lord: Heavy assault unit, anti tank.
Monolith: WBB factory, Wall, unit Bull Doser
Warriors: shooting support, phase out prevention, scoring units, bait

Battle plan: Think foot ball offence line, Deceiver is the center, Pariahs are the tackles, Monoliths tight ends, Wraiths & lord running backs/ receivers, & 1 or 2 Warriors are the QB 1 or 2 in reserves for phase out. Why do I do this? Because over 80% of people out there just say for get the mission and go for phase out, and 90% of them do this by HtoH. So with thins in mind I can plan safely plan on assault units coming right at my battle lines, yes they will try to stay away from the Deceiver but if I form a rough pocket and I move forward they will be hard pressed to stay out of my assault reach. Units that outflank or deep strike behind my pocket tend to get squealed between the warriors in the pocket and the warriors coming in from reserve.

Something that is over looked by a lot of players is if a broken unit if forced to take a break check they auto fail. Now think tank shocking with a Monolith and having it break because a pariah was near by, then shoot it enough to cause a 25% break CK, BUT before you let them fall back have the Deceiver cause a morale CK that they auto fail, then let them auto fail the 25% break from shooting. You have just sent one unit running 6 to 36" in one turn. PS; I pulled off the tipple shot twice, and got the Deceiver BK+ shooting BK many times as long as there are some pariahs for the first leadership test.

Deployment will very based on what I am faceting and the battle field I am playing on. I am 27,4,3 with this list and only one loss was to phase out. I would like to know what you think about it, I know a list that works hear for me may not work any where for any one else. But all feed back is welcome.

PS; your you tube video on tomb spiders is right on

Reply Out:

Hi, thanks for the kind words- Necrons still have a few tricks left! With your list I only wonder about a few things- mainly the five pariahs, wraiths, and warriors. With the pariahs does five really work? I’ve found eight to be the smallest number, and despite the cost of them I usually run with then. Five is easy to shoot up, and gives up a kill point. 8-10 are a bit harder. Nightmare shroud?
Warriors- two units vs. three, I’d love three at 2K points, but that is 180 points that can be spent elsewhere- I only take two warrior groups, and I know it is a limitation, and it sucks, ideally I’d like to have 4, but I need the points elsewhere.

Wraiths vs. destroyers to pop vehicles. I’ve found wraiths just get shot up in this role, and groups of three hurt since that is the most you can take in a unit- what was GW thinking? 5 should be the max.

Tactically, you are spot on, and the multiple fall back trick is even better these days since 99% of the players out there are space marines that are not fearless.
-Fritz

The Fail That Is Dark Eldar?

Something never seen before in the Imperium of Man- Fritz playing a land raider crusader with his ‘Templars. Why after legions of posts about the merits of the godhammer over the crusader have I flipped the switch- Dark Eldar.

So myself and the clubs resident Dark Eldar player have been war gaming out missions using what we know from the new DE codex, and DE will chance the game. Not break it like Tyranids could have, but for those of you who believe in the meta game and codex creep, expect another BIG shift.

How do I know this other than being a jerk and saying so? Don’t take my word for it, look at the other big “competitive” blogs out there. Remember, to read between the lines, and not that I consider my own humble blog competitive, it can’t be since I don’t play WAAc armies, never have, never will.

Anyway, look at these blogs, and how their armies have changed. Where are the land raiders with the TH/SS termies + null librarian. Gone. Where are the three predators and three rifleman dreads. Gone. Why is there nothing over AV 11 and at least two groups of speeders? Why multiple small units, that on paper are all so “normal”? Dark Eldar.

I know DE are going to be a hit on the tourney scene since they have that triple threat. The first is that it is a new “xeno” codex, and guys are dying to play something other than mahrinez. Second is that the model range is beyond sexy even if the fluff is more than stupid- DE having sex with slaaneshi daemons, and fusions with chaos spawn? WTF? Third is that DE has made any vehicle over AV 11 well AV 11, thanks to their dark lances.

Yes in the Eldar craftworld every ten guardians might get lucky and get handed a flamer of fusion gun, while in DE land everybody is packing a dark lance. You thought all those IG players with their spammy melta vets was bad…

That is armies are shifting and will shift to dropping anything over AV 11- it just isn’t worth it. Guard will be hit the hardest as they benefit from AV 12 and now that can be popped on the glance with the AP 1. What hurts more is that all the DE lance spam will be hitting on a 3+.

DE also have sick complementing assault options (harlequins aside) that will wipe out your unit regardless of its size or killy power if they get the charge. When a squad of termies gets taken out just as easy as a crap tactical why spend the points on the termies?

So why am I playing around with crusaders? Well for once, I’m GLAD GW takes their time in updating codexes with their crap business model. Safe and sound is my BT codex and I’ve got another seven plus years of enjoying all that it has to offer, and I’ve got to start posting up BT stuff again, how I’ve missed enjoying them… Anyway!

When I ran my BT army up against said “updated” DE army it got spanked. Raiders were shredded, razorbacks exploded, and my marines smoked. It looked like the Necron massacre at the back of the book, only swap in space elf perverts for the Necrons. Make one simple tweak, and suddenly the Dark Eldar faltered, their skimmers exploding and ranks of dark elves cut down.

Blessed hull.

Yes, the tri-raider list is back, at least for ‘Templars. Fellow marine brethren, start dropping those other AV 12+ vehicles…

Necron Lords?

Hi Fritz,

I have been reading your blog for quite some time now, and I have really appreciated your insight into Necrons. I realize you haven't been actively posting too much about them for the last few weeks, but I'm hoping you might still be able to answer a couple of questions I had.

First off, I've been thinking of different ways to play dual lord. My normal dual lord list comprises of one Veil of Darkness lord with Solar Pulse escorting 8-10 immortals, and a Destroyer Lord with Lightning Field and a warscythe being escorted by 8-10 scarab swarms.

The idea I'd like to try is to instead run dual lord in a destroyer wing, with the 2nd lord run as a destroyer lord very similar to your Nightmare Wing destroyer lord. Essentially my idea is to attach the destroyer lord AND the VoD Lord to the Immortals, and to deep strike them deep into the enemy deployment zone. The Immortals will try to get rear armor on a few vehicles and basically be a siphon unit from the main destroyer wing force. The Nightmare lord would separate from the Immortals and provide another siphon unit, using the nightmare shroud on any units outside of transports, and possibly use the warscythe to punk some vehicles.

My main concern is that the Veil of Darkness description states the VoD lord "and up to one unit of Necrons..." can be moved as per Deep Strike. This doesn't seem to include the possibility of a 2nd lord being transported as well. However, in the Monolith Power Matrix section, it describes a Necron unit as "...and any Necron Lord that has joined such a unit.)"

So, do the Monolith and VoD section contradict each other, or does VoD just have additional restrictions on what can be "transported"?

Also, just for completeness sake, here's the list I'm thinking about:
HQ
Lord - 180
Veil, Solar
Lord - 210
Dest body, Nightmare, Phase, Chrono

Elite
10x Immortal - 280

Troop
10x Warrior - 180
10x Warrior - 180
10x Warrior - 180

Fast Attack
5x Destroyer - 250
5x Destroyer - 250
5x Destroyer - 250

Heavy Support
Monolith - 235
Tomb Spyder - 55

Total - 2250


Thanks for any help you can provide!

-Numa

Reply Out:

Numa, the idea behind mounting the nightmare shroud on the destroyer lord is the precision that they destroyer body gives it- with turbo boosting you can be anywhere on the board next turn. With the 12” movement and 12” shroud range you can cover most things right away. If you attach him to the VOD lord and immortals there is the chance of scattering and the footprint of the deepstrike is bigger- and yes you could do it if you wanted as the lord takes a unit with him and the other lord is part of the unit.

I’d stay away from this- keep the lord with the shroud sepereate- of course it would help to have a body guard go with him to soak up wounds like scarabs, but you can’t b/c fast is filled out- get a phylactery on him also. The nightmare lord doesn’t want to be in the back ranks of your opponent where he will get assaulted- he wants to be on the sides hanging out, shrouding units, yet still far enough away that he can bling out and zip away if threatened.

With the VOD lord, don’t deep strike him in right away- your opponent will be compact and a scatter could destroy the unit- plus you will be taking a ton of return fire. Hang back with the immortals blasting away, and mid game pop the VOD to open up a new front in the battle and to siphon units.

-Fritz

Battle For Salvation Grand Tournament Update...

Guys, just a quick update on the Battle For Salvation GT in October- we have almost reached the 48 player cap for the event so if you were thinking about registering and haven’t- get moving. The club is going to look at opening up more slots, but this depends on being able to table and terrain it out correctly. One of the things our club prides itself on is top notch themed terrain- to respect the time, dedication, and hard work YOU have put into your army. No cardboard circles and flock here…

Go register and plan for a 40K filled weekend!

www.battleforsalvation.com

Daemonhunters Revisited

Email In:

Before I start I would like to say- the reason i have been emailing you a lot lately (sorry) is that I am starting a new army and I need I to be very good cause I can only go to once a month (if at that) by a 3-4 train ride. Don't worry I am not trying top be email friends =D.

Please take a look at this list, I am not asking you to post this on your blog or not, I just want some kind of response.Thanks-

.Inquisitor Lord
Psycannon
Psychic Hood
Emperors Tarot
3 Warriors
3 Plasma
Sage
Mystic

Vinicare Assassin

.10 Stormtroopers
2 Plasma

.Same

.Same

.5 Stormtroopers
2 Melta

.1 Justicar/7 Grey Knights (Fast Attack)
2 Psycannon

TOTAL=1001

TACTICS AND IDEAS-

.use tarot to get the turn that i need, be it 1st or 2nd
.infiltrate vindicare on a flank to side armour on a dangerous tank
for the tank round, and kill ork nobs (with a boys suad)/sanguinary
priests/commisars
.castle up, not as compact as your GK, depending on opponent/mission
.mass plasma and cheap infantry
.plama deep strikers(cause of castling) with the =I= squad
.deepstrike the GK squad to contest objestive/back armour of
tanks/distraction or......................
.keep with the rest of the force to shoot and be counter charge/speed bump
.block psychic powers cause of the unlimited range hood
.reserve?
.mass S6/S7 shots
.melta squad for killing the people who take LR in 1000 points (or
PlasmaGod 'russes.......)

soooo........................ what do you think?

-Zach

Zach, a few changes to consider from the top down, to bring your Daemonhunters more into line with what you will be facing on the table. You’ll have to play around with the points to make it fit.

First thing is to drop the assassin and switch over to the callidus assassin. The vin assassin while cool on paper, really won’t be killing anything of value- what- two or three wounds a game? The callidus can pop in and kill more with the correct setup, and get move a unit at the start of the game- move that tank into terrain for a terrain test as it moves out, etc.

Storm troopers really need to be in a vehicle with their 4+ save and T3. Chimeras are better for the shots they can pump out, you might have to drop down to two trooper squads to pay for the points. Also, take melta guns on them. Get a transport for the lord also.

Knights are fine, but keep them as troops and not fast attack, I see where you are going with them, and the idea is ok, but at 1K points you can’t risk the deepstrike and with a psycannon setup they want to be hanging back and shooting.

-Fritz

Necron Mission Help?

Email In:

Fritz,

Attached are the missions for a tournament in London in a couple of weeks. I'm fielding my Necrons, tweaked to mirror your PDF list. But many of the missions we will be playing in the tourny are "go out and fetch". I.e. objectives in neutral parts of the board, go and hold. Also, not many or zero points for contesting. My army isn't really geared for that sort of thing as, like you, I tend to hide my warriors in the back where they won't get stomped on by CC specialists.

If you get time, I'd be interested in your thoughts on dealing with these sorts of missions.

David

Reply Out:

David, thanks for the email! Ok, so let’s see what we can do to give you some ideas to play with for the tournament. Necrons FTW!

The biggest issue with multiple objective tournaments, and by that I mean you get X points for this, X points for that, etc. is that it is hard for Necrons to grab all the points. You just don’t have the mass of models on the table to do it, and thanks to phase out, you need to stick together as a core as I mention in the PDF. That said, I know you can still do well since you have the missions and can plan on what to do. The key is going to be working on a plan and sticking to it regardless of the armies you face. Here are some of my thoughts looking over the missions if I was going to play them:

Mission 1: Deadzone

Right away I want that deadzone since it is six points and it is compact in the middle. I’m not going to go for the beacons as they will spread my army out unless my opponent gifts them to me by screwing up, etc.

Does my opponent’s army have a way to destroy my monolith- RE 9+ las cannons and multiple melta guns? If they do I’ll deepstrike it- the lith is going to be key to getting that objective. My entire army sets up and advances following the usual plan, de-mech, then focus on troops. Shroud lord will focus on making dudes run off the far away becon so my opponent has to commit resources to keeping it. I’ll ignore the becon on my side. Get the lith in the center, and then bring a group of warriors up behind it to take the deadzone. The lith offers cover, more WBB rolls, and a way to project out. C’Tan stays near it as a counter assault unit. Once my opponent commits more resources to taking his beacon then I’ll pull back the lord to help hold the dead zone. All of my army focuses on this while part of my opponent’s goes to taking the center, and the two beacons- all of mine vs. parts of his. All goes well you end with 6-8 points and they end with 2-4 points.

Backup plan if it all goes to hell, make a play for the center, then pull back to my beacon for 2 points, then contest the other ones- and get that second scoring unit into the beacon for the two points.

With turn 5 nightfight onward solar pulse will give you one free round of shooting to help keep your objectives.

Mission 2: Seize Ground

Standard 5 objective game- follow the PDF as best you can.

Mission 3: Mayhem

Standard kill point mission as per the PDF only a slight twist. The C’tan, lith, and lord are worth their weight in gold. Get the monolith out as a WBB factory to help keep units up and deny a kill point. Zip the lord around as a fire magnet getting dudes to shoot at him- don’t commit him to the assault or possible shrouding-he is worth too much. Reserve the C’Tan, when he comes on, hide him in the corner away from your army and leave him there. He will be out for this mission.

Mission 4: Salvage

You are going to be sticking to the center of your deployment zone with the monolith center and your core to the right or left just a bit away. For this mission you want and need to go first 100%. If you don’t get first turn, set up anyway and try to seize.

Start with your lord joined to a destroyer unit with the scarabs nearby. Turn one pop off solar pulse, zip the scarabs and lord to the primary objective, and then send out the one pulse destroyer group to the second and the second group to the third. Turbo boosting means you ‘ll have all three- next turn move back. Pulse protects one of the destroyer groups. When you get back to your “base” pass off the objectives to the warriors, and give the lord a secondary one. From there it is all defense. Hang tight waiting for your opponent to come into your core- when they get close enough use the monolith to portal out the main objective warriors away, and then run them, hand off the second objective to a group of destroyers and turbo them away, and break away with the lord- if you can’t hand them all off to warriors better to take the lesser points then no points. Don’t try and stand and hold your ground. Crons can’t do it- better to keep moving the 12” with them.

Mission 5: Capture & Control

CC and DOW- perfect combo for the list, follow the .PDF but try to work a warrior group up mid field so you can portal them through the monolith on your opponent’s objective.

Mission 6: Land Grab

Same idea as seize ground, but depends on the army you are facing- making the call to try and get all his objectives for the max points, or just focus on holding your own for the guaranteed points.

What do you think? I’ll post it up for the readers to comment and give some ideas also. Let me know how you do!

-Fritz

Vypers In My Harlequin List?

So there has been some questions regarding where to spend the extra points in jumping from 1750 to 2000 for the BFS GT in my harlequin list that I will be running.

Vypers have been suggested, and at a first glance they appear to work well. They can be taken on the cheap with shuriken cannons which compliment the strategy behind the army- lots of S6 to take out razorback spam so I can then send in the clowns and assault.

Problem with the vypers is that they become the weak link and will go poof from one round of shooting. I’ve been playing games with guys at the club using the GT missions and on average these are some of the lists I’m facing at 2000 points with what is coming downrange into my army from Space Marines:

Generic Marines: 18 krak missiles, 4 lascannons.
Blood Angles: 17 las cannons.
Space Wolves: 20+ krak missiles, 4-5 las cannons.

Seriously, this is what some of the guys are planning to bring. They are playing the first turn alpha strike so one has to plan on either going first with the tarot or corbs trick, or bring even more boom boom las to fight back…or find a way to shift your army out of the “meta-game”, in theory anyway which is the direction I hope to take it.

What is my opponent going to target? 2+ cover save rangers, fortuned cover save wraithlords, harlequins out of 24”? The army turns las cannons into grot blasters, but add the vypers and they are the only thing that can be destroyed. Sure I could reserve them, and at least get off a round of shooting, but since the tourney is 4th edition rules with victory points I’ll just be throwing them away.

Harlequins Vs. Imperial Fists

2000 points Annihilation

First army was Dorn with a full terminator squad deepstriking in, two dreads in pods, three rhinos with full tac squads, two vindicators, and a las predator. I took first turn and deployed everything out- everything castled in the right for cover, a group of harlies and rangers to the left out in the open.

My opponent mirrors my deployment placing his forces to the right, and two vindies to the left. Perfect, and just what I was hoping for. I wanted the vindies to go there to bomb the easy targets so I could (and did) use Eldrad to pull the two units back over to my castled core before the game starts. Now the vindies would be out of action for three turns making their way over across the board. Less for a small elite army like mine to deal with.

Firs turn shooting is ineffective as everything is castled and lined up. First pod drops and scatters a bit, my harlies fusion gun it and it explodes as the rhinos move up. Rather than shoot the dread I assault it to tie my clowns up and protect them from rapid fire for a turn, later they hit and run, pull out, fusion it and then bounce forward taking out a tac squad and a rhino before getting taken out by dorn twin linked terminator bolter fire which is nasty. Second harlie group clashes with a rhino and tac squad taking them out before being whittled down to a single shadowseer, who then runs away- this is key for clowns in kill point missions. Always take the wounds last on the shadowseer, always, even if you hate taking them on the jester or fusion guys. So when you get down to only one or two models and need to deny kill points by running away, veil of tears is still up. So I run away with the single model, and get into cover out of the 24” bubble so I can’t be shot. So the fist kill almost the entire clown unit, but get nothing for kill point wise. Hey if tanks are no longer kill points in tourneys then I have to do what I have to do right?

End game the vindies finally roll up and start shelling Eldrad backed rangers in cover with the 2+ re-roll. Can’t crack that nut. I can’t take the chance that my opponent will tank shock with one since they have siege shields, push me out of cover, and then nuke with the other. So I eldritch storm turn one around, shoot, and do nothing.

Game eventually ends with eight kill points for the clowns and four kill points for the marines. Rogal Dorn is not happy.

Fritz Get’s Rick Rolled!

Tonight’s game at the club had my Tyranids squaring off against Lil Will’s Chaos Marine army @ 2000 points in practice for the clubs upcoming GT tourney. We rolled for mission, three objectives, and a 12” deployment. Will took first turn and deployed out- a land raider with Abbadon, four rhinos filled with Khorne Berserkers, a dread, and a defiler- solid at 2K points.

I was playing a variant of my null deployment army where I drop Swarmy for a generic winged tyrant and everything start off the table, coming in on deepstrike, pods, or outflank, playing with the alpha-strike denied theme that guys like to try and pull on you- not Will mind you, Chaos can’t pull that.

So will moves out to grab objectives while keeping his raider back. Two rhinos go on objectives, and two cover the final, going back to back to deny rear armor. Turn two I roll for reserves and everything is in except the tyrant and a group of gaunts in a pod.

Game time.

Pod deployment first as I build a wall to divide his forces- two rhinos on one side of the pod wall, and the rest of his army on the other. I’ll concentrate all of my forces on the two lead rhinos, use the pods to speed bump the rest of Will’s guys next turn and then counter assault with my stealers and fexes as gaunts take the objective. Solid plan right? I’m impressed myself.

Stealers come in on the flank as the pods and fexes land/deathleaper pops up. Pop the transports with the pods, fexes, DL, and zopes and then assault with thirty stealers. Sorry no pictures, but here is what it looked like borrowing from the best movie ever- Predator. Landed and lined up I open up…

Zopes hit/miss, and stun.
DL fail.
Pods fail.
Twin linked dakka S6 fexes fail X 2 fail.

“We hit nothing…”

All I did was immobilize one rhino!

Assault with the stealers- something you don’t want to do on vehicles, needing 6’s to hit, and 6’s to rend. I’ve got a lot of dice, roll em out…and do nothing.

Will disembarks his berzerkers, rolls up Abbadon, and two stealer squads plus a gaunt squad go down. I counter with poisoned adreanal gaunts and a second stealer squad and two of his go down. Zopes target the land raider to try and pop it for three turns so the ‘zerkers can’t jump back into it as a mobile bunker that I can crack and I fail to zope blast it- guess S10 AP 1 isn’t the internet bomb on some days. Fexes try to punch some rhinos so they can’t contest and do nothing, Will breaks through my wall and counters with two more zerker units and abbadon chewing through my fax, hive tyrant who finally arrives, and a third gaunt unit. I’ve got no scoring units, go for the draw, but just can’t hold as the dread and defiler finally make their way up. Game ends with Will holding one objective, I’ve got none.

Zerkers on the charge suck, poisioned jacked gaunts with furious charge on the charge suck, it was a question of who charged who first, and not cracking the rhinos allowed the zekers to do that. Abbadon is still the bomb, better then even Mepheston- as a challenger to marine supremacy GW will nerf hammer him in the next Chaos codex five years from now.

Still don’t know if it is going to be ‘nids or ‘clowns for the GT, and I’m not so sure about the denied alpha strike list, I really missed Swarmy, and some of the other hitters. As for Will’s army, pretty solid and well used, he is going to be a good player in the GT.

Need Some DDO Help...

So I'm working my way through the Red Fens and I've got my sorcerer Xonx up to level nine pushing to level 10.

'Fens has been a good run so far, provided I've been in a full party, but Xonx has his eyes on the prize, and the prize that I want is that necromantic staff in the demon pit during the last quest...

Problem is I keep getting wasted in the encounter after I float down, regardless of party- even with Jawaballs pumping us up.

Here is a shameless request- any level 15+ toons out there that could make a run through it tonight with me and blast it out? I can be on from 7:30 EST time onward.

Help a warforged out...

Tournament Missions?

So I’m kind of one 50/50 on this one. Both points of view are correct, I’ll see how I feel after a few tourneys. Here is the question…

More and more TO’s are publishing the missions before each tournament- is this a good or bad thing? On the one side if you know the missions ahead of time the theory is that the playing field is leveled since you can build your army for the mission and everything is fair/not hidden.

On the other side, it is numbing down the tournament experience, making it more point and click/winhammer army. When you don’t know the mission ahead of time you have to adapt on the fly the moment you get it and are deploying/setting up. Decision about how your army is going to play, your opponent’s etc. mean you have to call on your tabletop skills in the moment, not in your leisure weeks before the tournament.

What do YOU think- knowing the mission ahead of time, good or bad?

Fritz's 750 Point Challenge Battle Report

Nick speaking,

I have played many games at about 800 point before, but I have only ever played 1750 points with The IDIC Harlequins! My Harlequins were totally inspired by Fritz and his PDF, so much so, that the PDF made me go out and buy any models I could get my hands on, so that I could start fielding an army as quickly as possible. So with that said, I will happily take on Fritz's challenge, and make it my own personal challenge for my Harlequins...

First up, the list

1x Farseer (Doom/Fortune/Spirit Stone) (130)
5x Pathfinders Rangers (120)
5x Pathfinders Rangers (120)
8x Harlequins (kisses/Jester/Fusion Pistol/Shadowseer) (222)
1x Wraithlord (B.Lance+EML) (155)

747 Points

My aim was to keep the army working together in much the same way as it had to in bigger games. First I had to loose Eldrad! Dropping down to a basic Farseer was inevitable, but I felt that I had to keep the Spirit Stone with Doom and Fortune to give the army any chance. Who
knows what I would be up against, and being able to use both powers was going to be key.

Next was Troops, and I only had Rangers or Pathfinder Rangers to choose between. I new from past experience that I wanted the Pathfinders, somehow I think that the 2+ cover save will be even more important in a smaller game than ever. I know I could take normal Rangers and go to ground for the 2+, but I need these guys to be shooting and pinning every turn.

Obviously the Harlequins had to be in the list, and I put in the usual trickery models. Shadowseer for Veil of Tears, Death Jester for his mid range strength six/pinning shots, and one Fusion Pistol just in case a tank rolls up next to them. Of course, the Harlequin kisses were also going to be essential to help in the assault.

Last but not least, the Wraithlord is in there for the long range de-meching/pinning shots, and to help out the Harlequins in the counter assault.

The IDIC Harequins master Jedi plan in objective missions will be to park one unit of Pathfinders on an objective, with the Harlequins and Wraithlord nearby to de-mech and counter assault. The Farseer joins the Pathfinders and does what she does best with Doom and Fortune, whilst the other Pathfinder squad flanks/reserves depending on the situation. When the time is right the Harlequins will move out and assault, hit and run and contest any objectives. Annihilation tactics are pretty similar except I will hold back everything and just pick of the kill points.

Game One: IDIC Harlequins Vs Blood Angels

The roll off gives us Annihilation/Pitched battle, and I end up winning first turn. I deploy the Farseer and Pathfinders on the right, backed up by the Harlequins and Wraithlord, all in terrain. I then decide to deploy the other Pathfinders in terrain on the left to try and syphon off any incoming units. I needed to stop the whole of the BA force coming at me all at once, after all, I only had one unit of Harlequins! BA deployment sees a Razorback deploy loaded with five Vanguard Veterans, and a unit of scouts infiltrate in the centre of the board with some sort of teleport beacon! They keeps two jump pack squads and a Chaplain in reserve.

On turn one I Fortune the Wraithlord and Doom his Scouts, I know the Scouts will make light work of the Wraithlord with their auto wounds on 4+. Death Jester, and both Pathfinders shoot at the scouts and take out half of them, even with them going to ground, giving the Wraithlord some breathing space. Wraithlord shoots at the distant Razor and fails to hit. BA moves the Razorback at some crazy top speed and pops smoke next to the pathfinders on the left, and the scouts stand back up.

With the Vanguard ready to pop out and shoot next turn, turn two sees me fortune the Harlequins. Wraithlord immobilises the Razorback and destroys the heavy bolter, whilst the rest of my army shoot at the scouts, leaving only the teleport guy left standing. All of the BA
reserves come on in turn two and both jump pack units and chaplain deploy next to the teleport guy about 12" in front of me. Vanguard get out and go for the easy target Pathfinders on the left, wiping them out, but splitting there forces. One kill point for the Blood Angels.

In turn three I have to make a choice with the Harlequins, I use Doom and Fortune and go for the the Jump pack Chaplain unit shooting my guns in before the assault. the Farseer and Pathfinder look to be in trouble from the other Jump pack unit as they shoot out the last Scout
for the kill point. Wraithlord pounds the Razorback wrecking it for another kill point. Harlequins takes out the Jump pack guys in the assault and stay locked in combat with the Chaplain with one wound left. Perfect, now my Harlequins can't be shot at. In BA turn three the Vanguard get thrown into the Harlequins to help out the Chaplain, but my Harlequins wipe them and the Chaplain out. My Farseer uses his Jedi powers and the Jump pack squad fail the rough terrain test with a double one! Six kill points to me.

In my turn four the Harlequins move over and wipe out the last Jump pack squad. Games ends with a total wipe out.

Conclusion:
Sending the Vanguards into to the Harleqiuns was the BA main mistake, they had a good chance to take out the Wraithlord with their 2+ poisoned guns and then force me to choose who to assault next turn. Of course if the Jump pack guy's had passed there terrain test it could have been a different story...

“Count As” Dark Eldar Harlequins?

So the other day Black Matt and I were having a conversation about “count as” armies- you know those chaos space marine armies out there now suddenly being played as Space Wolves or Blood Angels- oblits as wolf guard, havoc launcher rhinos as razorback, etc. Now I do have to be honest with my readers in that I have not always been a big fan of count as armies, but over time I have been coming around a bit…just don’t want to be a total hypocrite by the end of this rant...

So there you are as a die hard chaos space marine player- time, money, and tears invested in your army and this is what you want to play to have fun in 40K. Problem is, GW’s lack of customer support leaves you with an older codex for at least another few years. What are you to do- especially if you have an interest in playing in competitive tournaments- any tourney with a comp score is not competitive no matter how you try and spin it.

And then there is the temptations of the newer codexes. GW wants to sell models, and the new toys with more shiny things for less points sell. Wouldn’t it be cool to play Dante or jacked out assault marines as raptors, etc?

Playing a count as army opens up these possibilities, and I can understand why. In the end, I wonder if GW is shooting themselves in the foot so to speak, and I’m going to try and not go off topic here that much. The old player model for the game was to buy an army for each codex and play that army with the intended codex. Now? Blood Angels and Space Wolves, you guys are on top right now, but what about over the next few years? What about when Dark Eldar and Black Templars drop? When GW pushes you to the back of the line, it is a long wait to the front, even if you are Space Marines.

What is the new player model for 40K now? Build your army to work with multiple codexes. Goatboy has done this with his Space Marines, and it is spot on. If I was doing another Space Marine army, I would draw from all the models in the range and make it work for chaos/vanilla/wolf/angel marines. Would take a bit more planning, and a bit more upfront cash, but it would give me a ton of options, ensuring that I never get bored with how the army plays, while also making sure that the army is always competitive. Thanks GW, instead of buying five or six armies over my 40K life, I’m now only buying one. The solution to a happy customer base- release all the codexes with each new edition in a reasonable time frame, say a year, and then focus on cool supplements like apoc and planet during the life of the edition…

But back to count as armies…

Same thing is now going to happen with Eldar and the Dark Eldar codex. Again, full disclaimer here, I have not seen a copy of the codex proper, don’t have, want, and never will have the .PDF or a bootleg version. What I have seen are confirmed stat lines and rules for certain models, and my mind is already in motion with ideas.

I called it before other news 40K sites posted it- harlequins are and will be in the Dark Eldar codex, and they are. Far from “broken” they are at least now updated for 5th and blow the Eldar ‘quins out of the water. Why play the older stuff, when I can play the newer stuff? Why can’t I proxy a farseer or phoenix lord as a DE HQ? Why can’t I use my rangers as warriors? Wraithlords as a telos, vypers as ravagers, and well jetbikes as jetbikes? Fritz playing a count as army?

I’ve got enough Eldar junk to do it, but if I was starting back over, I’d be writing and building a list to work with both codexes- Eldar and Dark Eldar. Period...

The next question is will harlequins “work” in the DE codex? By this I mean as an army on their own as in max out the total number of clowns and come up with a delivery system for them to crush other 5th edition armies. I’ve done this in the current Eldar codex, it works, and I’ll still be running this variant, and the good news here is that the Eldar ‘dex isn’t changing any time soon. As for DE clowns, not enough info yet there so I don't know if it is totally viable- I still need to see certain units, and how their psychic powers stack up. DE psychic powers? Yes, they said no to drugs and are apparently master psykers now also. Eldrad cries another tear, and Tyranids get smacked around a bit more- hey your raider is open topped- I can SEE you, you can fire, flame, punk me, but I can’t use my hive mind mojo on you…

Daemonhunters FTW!

Email In:

Good morning Fritz,

I'm a big fan of your blog and youtube channel. Your tactics tutorials really helped me cut the learning curve of 40k in half! Thank you for that. Now onto the meat of the email.

Last night I was flipping through the Daemonhunters codex, enjoying the fluff and interesting models and decided to proxie a 750 list...without Grey Knights! Why? Grey Knights are great units, despite their high point costs, but I wanted to really see what the Daemonhunters had to offer without them.

Here's yet another list for you to look at. (haha)

HQ-
Inquisitor Lord w/ WotE
w/ Acolytes x4
Mystic
Warriors x4 w/ Melta
w/ Rhino

Troops-
Inquisitorial Storm Troopers x5
w/ Melta x2
w/ Rhino

Inquisitorial Storm Troopers x5
w/ Melta x2
w/ Rhino

Elite-
Psyker Battle Squad
w/ Sanctioned Psykers-4

Callidus Assassin

That's it. At first glance, the troops like super light, but the game I played last night proved the worth of the list on the whole.

I played a 3 objective game against some Space Wolves.

Their list looked like this:

Bjorn in Drop Pod

Rhino with 10 Grey Hunters x2 maxed melta.

The outcome was a complete tabling of the 'Wolves at the top of turn 5! The combo of the Weaken Resolve from the Psyker squad and the Shredder from the Assassin was just way too much to deal with, considering only 1's failed to wound whatever the template touched. All of the melta I was packing ensured that what I needed to shred was out of their transport by turn 3 tops! Which made hiding in the Rhinos futile.

Please, let me know what you think of this 750 list and the possibilites with Daemonhunters on the whole, sans Grey Knights.

Thanks and keep doing what you're doing,
Damon.

Reply Out.


My experience with Daemonhunters has shown you need to play them at 1000-1200 points to be “fair”. What I mean by that is the DH codex was written during a different time. Check out the entry for the assassins and d. hosts- they are 0-1 or you can only take one. Not that GW every really cared about balance but in the older codex they at least saw the possibility of “spam”- oblits from chaos used to be 0-1.
Playing against the new codexes without those limits on units at 1750-2000 points is just too much. However, at that ~1000 point level you just can’t spam stuff so it is a bit better. Anyway, rant aside, onto your list…

You’ve got the combo down with the assassin and the psyker battle squad. Nasty and deadly- guard players love this and the use of inquisitor psychic hoods. The two changes I’d make or try to make is getting a psychic hood into the list, just in case as it covers the entire table- it will ruin Eldar and other builds at lower points level where guys try to make up on the punch with psychic attacks- ‘wolves, Mepheston, etc. The second change would be rhinos over chimeras for more mid range punch, but where to find the points to pay for it if we are staying at 750 points.
Now as for DH non Grey Knights- can it be done, sure, but you will need to look into taking allies to make up for the lack of power armor. DH was never meant to be played without power armored troops.

Thanks for the kind words about the blog- I enjoy the feedback and opinions I get- helps my own game and ways of thinking.

-Fritz

Necron Nightmare Build

You wouldn’t always know it from looking across the sea of gaming tables full of Space Wolves, Blood Angels, and Imperial Guard but there are actually other armies in the 40K universe. If you are a xeno player, what is one supposed to do while waiting for a new codex? Well, consider exploring some variant army builds to breathe some new life into your army.

So this is a build that I used to use extensively in 4th edition and now adapted for 5th edition play- the nightmare build. Making extensive use of flayed ones, pariahs, and tomb spyders backed by the golden one it is all about synergy and fun. I don’t think I have to point out that this is a fun/themed list to give you some variety in your Necron games, and not a “competitive” list. The goal of this army is to scare your opponent and make them run away crying like little children. Nothing is funnier than seeing Space Marines consistently run away turn after turn.

Pariahs’ are the lost child of the Necron codex. ‘Cron players so want to do something with their souless ability but struggle based on the over the top point cost, 0-1 limitation, and the fact that they aren’t Necrons. This theme builds on them and gives you a reason to put them down on the table. So here is the list at 1750 points…

HQ: C’Tan Deceiver
HQ: Lord W/ Solar Pulse, Nightmare Shroud, War, Gaze Of Flame, Scythe
Elites: 10 Pariahs
Elites: 10 Flayed Ones X2
Troops: 10 Warriors X 2
Heavy: Tomb Spyders X 3
Deployment…

Regardless of the mission the army needs to stick together and work as a core unit- think of a Roman legion formation marching and fighting as one giant block. Tomb spyders are in the front with a second rank of flayed ones, pariahs, and the C’Tan. Behind them is the lord and your two warrior groups.

If you are familiar with Necrons right away you are asking yourself what is in the list to pop all those spamy razorbacks that are going to be coming your way.

Nothing! But hear me out…

In the best of cases you have ranks of destroyers and maybe even a heavy destroyer group mixed in. With this build we just don’t have the points for them, and to take a single group of min destroyers isn’t going to do anything so we just aren’t going to bother trying to stop the opponent from crashing out ranks- but remember the idea of sticking together.

You want to deploy where you can enter and be in terrain. In the front ranks the spyders will begin pooping out scarabs swarms that get into cover and now you have a T6 unit with a 3+ cover save. Position them so a “net” is cast around the rest of your units granting them a 4+ cover save.

At the start of the game your warriors and pariahs move to the front to get the 24” range of shooting so maybe you can get lucky at immobilizing a vehicle. With shooting for the first few turns you can even go to ground for the 3+ cover save- keeping units alive is important for now. Keeping the P’s up is key so be ready to attach the lord and pop off solar pulse to cut down on a round of shooting if needed.

As those legions of razorbacks come forward they will hit your wall of tomb spyders with two options. Crash through and tank shock or stop just before and rapid fire. If they crash through you are fearless or LD 10 and if they get out and rapid fire you take it with the T6 or WBB rolls. If they move up to then assault next turn through your ranks, then you assault the transports first and swarm for the emergency disembark. Hold the line and take the crash.

Now when those marines get out for whatever reason they are in the pariah bubble- LD 7 as you hit them with the C’Tan powers, visage of the flayed ones, and the shroud of the lord. Mob those units and pile in the assault. Once you are in the assault, you are then protected from shooting so you want to encourage that as soon as possible…

Wraith wing, destroyer wing, and the nightmare build can all give you some new fun and different games while we wait for that new ‘dex, especially if you are playing the battle mission books and variant missions.

Necron Wraith Wing

A few posts back I talked about running a destroyer wing themed Necron army so this week let's turn to running a wraith themed army...

While we are talking about “wing” based Necron armies another variant is the wraith wing which still packs some punch but is a bit harder to use on the table given a lower model count and the vulnerability of the wraiths themselves.

A wraith wing list is built around a core of fast moving wraiths backed by Necron destroyer lords and heavy destroyers. Here is the list and how it plays out:

2 Necron Destroyer Lords W/ Warscythes
3 X 10 Warriors
3 X 3 Wraiths
2 X 3 Heavy Destroyers
1 x 2 Tomb Spyders

The main issue of the list is that wraiths occupy the same slot as destroyers and this list needs to crack open transports so the wraiths can get at the guys inside- this leaves single shot heavy destroyers for the task, at least you can get those heavy destroyers on the table. While they aren’t bad per se, the problem is that you only get a single shot, and the models come in units of only three.

The two lords each get attached to a wraith unit for some added punch and to take a few wounds on the way in if needed. Wargear is up to you, but solar pulse on one is 100% mandatory- not so much for night fight this time, but more so to protect you from shots on the way in.

Warriors are there for “scoring” and three are taken over the standard two for variants lists like this since there is no counter assault or speedbump unit. Let’s now look at deployment:

Standard Wraith Wing Deployment…

Ok, let’s start with the back of the table and work our way up. Warriors are spread out on the table- one on the left, once center, and one on the right. Being spread out means your opponent has to divide their forces up to get to your warriors. The tomb spyders go in-between each group and poop out a single swarm for wounds and then get into cover. This way when one warrior group falls to shooting, etc. the spyder is the bridge to WBB those warriors over to another group. Be prepared to shift warriors on the flanks and the spyders over if your opponent looks to hit the center warrior group.

Ahead of them are the heavy destroyers. They start in the center of the table so they have range to everything and operate as a “pack” so you can get WBB rolls when a unit goes down. Their job is to crack open the tanks for the wraiths to assault. The final layer is the wraiths who also start front and center and then flank the weak side. They too also operate as a pack with the lords, with the non-lord wraith group piling in on one of the assaults to make sure combat it won. The idea is to kill a unit or two in the assault, and then zip away to the other side of the table as opposed to wading through combat after combat like they are terminators or something- which they are not. The wraiths and lords are a surgical strike, looking to hit and run, keep your opponent busy moving and shooting trying to react to them so your warriors can slip in RE mission objectives.

Wraithguard Eldar: Making Them Work

Email In

Fritz,

It has been a long time since I had emailed you. But I ran into a deal on 20 Wraithguard... and I also have about 20 old RT era Eldar (with back banners and chainsaw attachments on their shuriken catapults). Anyhow I was thinking about running some sort of Spirit host army - at 2,000 pts. Having talked with you about my harelquin army a few years ago I thought I would pick your brain on how you would assemble a Spirit Host list. Also I would want to work in a squad of warwalkers (old ones I had converted with old wraithlord heads to make them "wraith" walkers lol). Anyhow just wondering how you would assemble a competitive list.

-Don

Reply Out:

Don, you tempt me sir! I have a half built WG themed Eldar army that has been on hold forever that I would love to finish. Here is/was my plans and what I discovered playing it with some proxies in a number of games.

The first question is numbers vs. mobility in a themed list. To make it work you are going to have to be on foot with the wraithguard. Putting the lesser amount in falcons means you have less on the table, and are burning points on a heavy support choice that is overpriced, and can be taken out in a single shot- either through a lucky hit, or stunning it a turn so it can’t shoot.

WG by the numbers are pretty tough, and once you throw in farseer support to fortune them they become almost seer council like especially if they are in cover. I’d start from the top down with Eldrad and a dedicated doom/fortune seer attached to two large WG groups. Yes, Eldrad is pricey, but like I talk about with my harlequins, if you are on foot he is the defact farseer- divination helps so much with siphoning off units.

So now we have two units that are tough as nails from shooting with the 3+/4+ rerollable save- with a 12” gun! Forget about moving out with these dudes anywhere. You will need to make your opponent come to you and get into range by their movement to blast them. In objective games, place what you can in a position to park the WG in range to shoot.

Next that means the WG are vulnerable to getting hit with a dedicated assault unit so you will need a counter assault unit, something to babysit next to them and intercept anything coming in. Wraithlords can do this very well, and the compliment not only the theme, but give you much needed long range AT shots with the scatter lasers and missile launchers- no need for brightlances thanks to the WG. Pick up two WL and think of them as working with your WG- plus the seers in the WG units negate W sight.

Troops? Tempting to load up on guardians, and you can- although the seer upgrade to the WG should be taken so they are troops, but this is then introducing a weak link into you army. With the WL’s in cover and fortune up on the WG shooting will be hard to kill them with, so why bother? Just blast the guardians who will fall even with a cover save. I’d perhaps rather see a third WG unit who could be fortune supported by Eldrad also.

The final piece of the puzzle is going to be a de-meching unit- something to get your opponent out on foot so they are moving at your speed and so that when your WG come to range they can blast away.

Walkers normally fill this role, but I found, perhaps surprisingly, vypers to be a better buy- shuriken cannons on the top and bottom guns, groups of three. Their mobility is key over the walkers for dealing with tanks, and then drawing away fire or even contesting the objectives that you will never reach in time. Yes they are AV 10 and open topped, but getting cover saves through terrain and moving once mastered negates that, of course for theme is perhaps doesn’t really fit.

-Fritz

Tyranid Snacking!

I’ve been working on an alternate Tyranid list/delivery system to work with my hypernids theory and there is only a bit more to iron out before I add it to the Tyranid .PDF. It combines mass vanilla stealers with Yirmies backed by some nutcracker units to break open the razorback spam so the stealers can snack. I originally looked at hive guard to do this, but they compete with the needed elite slots for the Yrms as does zopes. I’ve been working around that with tyrannofexes which have the added bonus of taking wounds. Tfexes are not the ‘nid equivalent to devastators- they don’t want to sit back and shoot. They need to be running ahead forcing your opponent to waste bolter shots and the like on them for the hopes of rolling sixes as opposed to zapping your stealer swarm with no saves. What I need to balance out is the dynamics of the cost of the stealers vs. tfexes so there is just enough of both to get the tactics done. WIP, but definitely more to come…

Harlequins Vs. Space Marines BFS GT Practice

So the missions are up for the BFS GT and last night I got in a practice game with Ed from the club vs. his Space Marine list- of which I was quite excited since I have been thinking about running a six dred list myself and now got to see one one the table.

The win for the mission was victory points (hello 4th edition!) with table quarters and kill points as the tie breakers. Ed set up first for the alpha strike, I set up, and there was nothing to alpha since I reserved my wraithlords. When they came on they popped the dreads making their way straight on so a building shielded them from incoming fire with cover saves. I then took 10 krak missiles and four las cannons into the WL’s and took two wounds on one and a single on the second. They then went to work with the brightlances and Mauggy with the jesters. By the time Ed realized that my army doesn’t play like space mahrinez it was too late. Of course next time he knows what to do, but we finished out with around 1200 victory points for the clowns and 0 victory points for the marines, I also had kill points while the marines had none, but Ed had me beat on table quarters.

I just don’t have the number of units to be able to spread out and capture table quarters along with other bonus objectives- just how Eldar are now in 5th compared to cheap and compact marine lists. Primary mission is my goal.

But while this is turning into a clown post, it is really about Ed’s space marines of which seeing them on the table really has me grinding out some tactics for them. His awesome paint job on them isn’t helping me resist the list either.

Ed's Sexy Dreads With Kustom Hammers

More or less at 2K points:

1 Master of the forge
6 IC Dreads With 2 HK’s each
4 Las/Plas Razorbacks W/ Tactical
3 ML/HB speeders.

I’d love to get some preds into the list, but can’t since the dreads take up both elite and fast. I’d drop the combi’s in the tactical and power fists to free up some points to get more HK’s on the razors and a beamer on the tech priest .

Tactics, light off the bottle rockets and then punch things in the face with the dreads in a nutshell.

My experience with the game at this point and time is that it has escalated to the point of the alpha strike in win at all cost players, AKA tournaments. It’s like a wild west shoot out- whoever shoots first wins. At the last tournament this was personally confirmed for me by watching Jawaballs and Danny Internets face off against each other in round two- JB you didn’t listen to me about not getting all the bonus points and scoring a massacre in that first game to go up against the only other guy who scored a massacre round one!

Danny had his leafblower guard list with the demo charge alpha strike and Jawa had his blood strike BA list. Don’t know if the tarot helped Danny go first, but he set up, Jawa set up, Jawa tried to seize, failed, and Dan broke him in one turn of shooting. Since their game was over on turn one, Dan got the points and they set up again and played a “what if game” if JB had gone first or seized. The result? Dan got broken on turn one. What does this say about the state of the game, where tourneys are decided on who goes first if you are playing IG or Blood Wolves, and why one stands no chance if you play any other army against these lists- or do you? So back to Ed’s list and how it got me thinking with a few tweaks. Build a list to deliver the alpha strike, and if you don’t get it survive enough to still be in play in theory. This is the next level out of the meta-game that certain players I respect are looking at.

The formula is simple in theory- you go first and set up the dreads as far forward as you can- DOW does screw you, but oh well. Stack the razors behind the dreads and now they get cover saves, deploy in a V shape since dreads are compact and now the entire formation except for the first model can get cover- perhaps use terrain to get it on the first model. Your opponent sets up since nobody reserves anything anyway and if they don’t seize you blast them with 21+ krak missiles, four las cannons and a beamer, and then run the dreds next turn to pummel the survivors. If you get seized or have to take the alpha strike then you are taking them AV 13 with potential cover saves and then firing back- and AV 13 is HUGE even with las. Space Marine leaf blower doesn’t work because there is a huge difference with AV 11 rhinos and AV 12 chimeras when they are just a bunker- take that up to AV 13, especially against krak missiles. Could Ed’s list survive an alpha strike? I want to borrow that army and find out!

Of course there is another option to surviving the alpha strike- take your army out of the meta-game. There is the reason why certain players are looking into ways to crush mech without being mech themselves. They know it is going to come down to first turn plain and simple. Do you really want to lose a tourney based on who goes first? Thunderwolves are one such answer to the alpha strike. They have the speed and survivability to make it to the alpha line and bring the pain…

…three las cannon shots to your rhino, hit, pen, explodes.
Vs.
…three las cannons to your t-wolf unit, hit, wound, cover save, cause a wound and then laugh b/c they are T5 and no instant death. Take a play from the ork codex and you can allocate the wounds BS game- this one has a bolt pistol, this one has a melta bomb, this one has an extra CC weapon- all different models- spread out the wound love.

I really want to try that dread list...

Clowns @ 2000 PTS?

Well it is either going to be harlequins or Tyranids for the upcoming Battle For Salvation GT for yours truly. On the one hand I want to return with the ‘nids and hopefully not self destruct in the final game on table number one this time, but I need to paint up twenty more genestealers for some Yrimigal fun. This isn’t that much of a big deal, but pushing around 100+ models for seven games is a task that I’m not sure I’m up for. Seriously, you need to consider how your army effects you in terms or setup/breakdown between each game and how it is going to physically wear you out- ork horde players back me up here…

Clowns are and have been ready to go. I’ve even got a sexy wraithbone portal on my display board courtesy of Jawaballs, but I need to make that leap from 1750 points to 2000 points which is apparently the new standard of 40K here in the states. What can I really get for 250 more points? Heavy support and elites are maxed out, not that I would change my list- the tactics and technology are locked down. Normally I just add in Mauggy and call it a day, but this is going to be a top tier tournament so perhaps I am better off without any “fun” models- although Mauggy does have his place. More pathfinders? On the surface more troops seem like a good idea, but Eldar troops don’t do much other then sit on objectives- this is what has me looking at another farseer or perhaps the classic combo of the prince joining the clowns.

Dual farseer support would be nice- Eldrad in the back, bonesinger dude in the front casting multiple powers. I’m not that worried about a hoods, although I do have to consider that- a forward psyker being shut down vs. the prince working no matter what.

Farseer or prince? OR just paint up those twenty stealers…

Dark Eldar Confirmed Really?

So Dark Eldar have been confirmed for the next codex and this is both good and bad news. Good news is that xeno players will finally have a new army other then space bugz and maybe we will start to see something other then Blood Wolves and IG point and click armies on the table. DE models getting redone is also a huge plus.

The down side? Goatboy and BOLS makes some good points regarding darklance spam, and other things that will be in the codex at some point, but here is my issue with the Dark Eldar, and why I think they will be a 2nd tier army like Tyranids, and not the new auto-win army.

Hear me out...

At the start of 5th GW was a very different company, and they didn't know where 5th was going yet and that planetstrike was going to fail. Look at the first 5th codex- space marines and while it was much improved and more fun to play there was hardly anything ground breaking.

Then GW figured out 5th and the desire to sell tanks and cheap troops so you have to buy them by the box- IG, SW, BA, all point to this. Well Dark Eldar were done and wrapped up before codex Space Marines 5th- GW has been sitting on it all this time waiting to put it out, not wanting to rock the marine chash cow. You think they are going to "re-write" the codex for 5th proper at this time and date- they can't or won't release other xeno books in a fast manner so why would they update. They can't even do a proper PDF as we saw with Daemonhunters.

Please understand, I'm not being down on Dark Eldar- Jawaballs and I are already planning our armies, and I'm looking for my harlequins to have an alternate codex to play in till Eldar get redone in 40K 6th edition.

Also, I'll be in line with Stelek's advice (gasp, mentioning Stelek and BOLS in the same post) in waiting for the DE FAQ to drop before I actually buy my models. GW ruined Tyranids vs. BA and SW with their FAQ dropping them down to 2nd tier. I don't want to get stuck buying stuff that is only going to work for six months or so.

Sound off...

HyperMarines?

Email In:
Hey Fritz,
I've tried to make a Space Marine's list following your Tyranid's list,here's what I've made:

Korsarro
Command Squad(Apothecary,Champion, 3 flamers) on a Razorback with TL-Heavy Bolter

10 Tactical space Marines with a meltagun,a Missile Launcher with a sergeant with Power fist and Combi-Melta
5 Scout with CCW, sergeant with Power Fist ,Combi-melta and a MeltaBomb
7 Scout with cloack and sniper Rifles

8 Assault Terminator(5 with TH/SS) on a Land Raider Crusader with reinforced armour and MultiMelta
Dreadnought with TL-LasCannon and Missile Launcher
Dreadnought with Multimelta and Power fist with built-in Heavy Flamer with reinforced armour

Land Speeder Storm with Heavy flamer

In the obj deployment i try to put many objs near the small borders of the table.
The tactic is to deploy only the 7-man tactical squad(on an objective,maybe) and the 2 dreadnoughts(that protect them from bad close combat things).Scouts should resist from heavy fire,getting to ground for a 2+Cover Save :D

If I've got the first turn and if the enemy has got a very nasty vehicle(Like a Land Raider) i can deploy the LSS with scouts too,explore before my first turn,and trying to blast it before it can even move(a melta shot and a Meltabomb,that automatically hits :) )
All my other pieces outflank.

What do you think?I'm gonna try this at a 1750 pts-tournament the 3rd of october.

Bye,
Cerulean

P.S.Your blog is awesome!!!

Reply Out:

Funny that this email hit my inbox- I’ve been reapplying my hypernids ideas to face Space Wolves now that they have finally come about full circle with all the razorback spam.

Khanh certainly does open up the option, and it sounds like you have a plan. The only bit I’d add is that sometimes you need a bait unit to force your opponent to come into range for the outflank attack. Some guys will know what you are planning to do- either through breaking down your army list, or from having been punked by it before. They will stay off objectives or out of range as long as they can. Having a throw away unit of you can bait them in with is worth looking into.
I’m going to open up the post to the blog- readers, what do you think?

-Fritz

Battle For Salvation Grand Tournament

So the date, time and place are all set for the clubs next GT. Full info and details can be found on the registration page...




http://www.battleforsalvation.com/

How Use 500 Eldar?

Emai In:

Hi Fritz,

I would love to know your opinion on this list of mine. It is my first 40k army, I have just finished painting it and I'm about to play my first 40k game with it this Saturday. Just want to know if the general idea behind the list is valid in modern 40k environment and if you have some tips on how to use it to its best potential.

Wave Serpent, EML, Cannon
in it
Doomseer, spear
10x Storm Guardians, 2x flamer, Warlock, Destructor, spear

5x Rangers
Warwalker, 2x laser

So that's that. Thanks for any insight, your fan
Ratmamahatma

Reply Out:

Hi, thanks for emailing. Here are a few ideas to keep in mind with your army as you start out on your 40K career…

The rangers are a static troop choice that you will need to win 2 out of the 3 missions. Rangers need to be in cover for the 3+ cover save or go to ground for the 2+ cover save. Place an objective in cover and stash them there. Since the wave serpent can just zoom around, and walker doesn’t need cover to work- but it helps, more in a bit, the rangers will be the weak link in your army. To get around this, try this.

Place an objective that you plan to hold with you rangers in terrain that can both give them a cover save and block 50% of your walker so it has cover. AV 10 isn’t much, but AV 10 in cover is. This will be your firebase, especially in capture and control missions. Fire away with the rangers and war walker, but don’t move out with the war walker unless your opponent is in range to assault your rangers. If they are then assault them with the war walker as a speed bump unit- yes it is no space marine dread, but it can and will tie a unit up.

Target priority is next, use your S6 war walker and EML/cannon shots to break open any vehicles, and then go to town on the guys inside with your shooting. Unload your storm guardians only when you can take the target you are attacking. Meaning, let’s say you blow up a space marine rhino with your war walker shots and now ten tactical are on foot. Can your storm guardians kill them? After you kill them what happens? Meaning, ten strong need to be taken down a bit- move to assault with your storm guardians, doom the marines, and then fire into them with your rangers and walker if possible to kill a few- then hit them with destructor, mass pistol shots, flamers, and charge- but only if there isn’t another unit nearby that could then get out and rapid fire killing you.

Finally also keep in mind that you can drop off your scoring storm guardians to claim one objective and then contest another with your wave serpent that your opponent is holding.

Hope that helps and good luck!

-Fritz

Which Army For The Tournament?

So now begin the process of trying to figure out what army to bring to the BFS tourney in October. My 'templars havent gotten any love on the table in a long time and they are always fun to play with almost army wide furious charge and army wide prefered enemy. Jawballs says 'Templars can't compete anymore with Blood Wolves...

Virtual Dungeons & Dragons?

So it’s about that time again, time to get some D&D started back up- old skool D&D, not that DDO stuff that Jawaballs got me hooked playing, my warforged sorcerer Xonx is progressing along very nicely…

Anyway, it’s funny, 40K is always kind of an ongoing thing, and D&D runs in cycles with the group. We’ll play for a few months, and then stop playing for a while, only to roll back around and start playing again.

However, this time things are a bit different with my local group. A few of the guys like Tattoo Matt, different then BlackMatt have moved a few hours away. Jawa can’t get out of the house as much, and a few others have drifted away. So what is a DM to do?

Well, we have been throwing around the idea of running a virtual gaming group. I used to run a very successful PBEM campaign spanning over two years of real time with almost forty players- imagine trying to manage that, and I’m not sure I’m up for that again.

What about some sort of voice chat, skype, webcam, thing with a virtual table? Meet up at X time online and play. I guess the question is this- is anybody currently doing this or have you ran a campaign like this? I need some suggestions and things to look into.

You Want Competitive Play?

http://www.battleforsalvation.com

Things are gearing up for the clubs GT tourney in October, tables are done, space rented, invites are out. This will be THE competitive tournament, and guys at the club are building and testing their lists…

A word of warning, Brother Captain James from the club is ready to do anything to win! He can’t say no to a challenge or contest…

Tyranids Vs. Space Wolves Battle Report

Email In:

“Broodlord Fritzzzzzzzzzzssssss, report from engagement, summary: Space Puppies Taste Good”

Hi Fritz,

Using a modified version of your Null Deployment list had a 2000 point battle against Space Wolves.

Tyranid Forces:
- Swarmlord & 3 Guards
- 2 Zoanthropes in a Spore
- 1 Carnifex in a Spore
- 1 Carnifex in a Spore
- Doom in a Spore
- 30 Hormagaunts in 2x15 gaunt squads
- 10 Termagants
- 1 Tervigon, Adrenal Gland & Acid Sac
- 30 Genestealers in 3x10 Stealer squads

Space Wolves
- Wolf Lord, Terminator, Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield + some runes
- 5 Wolf Guard Terminators, 1 Frost Axe, 1 Hammer & SS, 2 Claws, 1 Cyclone
- All in a Landraider Redeemer with xtra armour & multi melta

- 10 Grey Hunters (2 Plasma, 1 Power fist) in a drop pod
- 10 Grey Hunters (2 Plasma, 1 Power fist) in a drop pod
- 6 Long Fangs & Wolfgaurd battle leader (3 Plasma, 2 Las, 1 Power fist) in a drop pod
- Venerable Dreadnought
- Dreadnought

Rolled for game and it was nightfighting apocalypse. He won rolloff and handed start to me. I then broke your cardinal rule for annihilation and deployed! He then stole initiative.

So game starts with 10 Termagants in a line in front of Swarmy and his guards with the Tervigon at the back, everything else off the table. Space Wolves started in reserve.

On scenery front, only key thing was a large building right in the centre of the board (see picture), it was hugely valuable to me for hiding things behind.

Turn 1
He stole initiative and I started to curse not following your advice, I had visions of the two pods coming down behind Swarmy and on either side of the Tervigon and basically shooting the stuffing out of both with no nice cover saves from my Termagants. As it happened, he dropped two pods of Grey Hunters in front of my Termagants and I breathed a sigh of relief. Landraider came on as did a dreadnought.

Shooting phase the Grey Hunters killed all the Termagants and the Dreadnaught put one wound on a Tyrant Guard.

Tyranid Points: 0 Wolf points: 1

My move and all hell broke loose. Now, before we continue I have to own up to a rather large mistake…….. both of us thought that Tervigon gave adrenal & poison to all nids in range, instead of just all Termagants in range. Chatted about it today and we reckon it actually didn’t have a huge effect but we’re going to have a replay!

Anyway, first up Doom, a ‘fex and a set of stealers came on, Hormagaunts walked on. Doom dropped in so that he could hide behind the building and his pod could attack the Hunters on my right. Carnifex dropped in and hid behind the building as well, with its pod thumping the Hunters on my left. Stealers came in on the right. Tervigon pooped out 15 (!!!!!) little baby Termagants, the dice gods were on my side again.

In my shooting nothing happened, Marines made their leadership against Doom and all other shooting missed. Then came the combat…… Stealers and one Hormagaunts attacked the Hunters on the right and killed them with no losses, Swarmy, the other Hormagaunts attacked the Hunters on the left and killed them with one Hormagaunt killed, everyone then consolidated in behind the building. I just ignored the pods as I felt that the potential damage from the stormbolters on them was less than the risk of them exploding.

Tyranid Points: 2 Wolf Points: 1

Turn 2
Wolf Landraider charged forward 12” right up to the bugs, 2nd dreadnought came on but the 3rd pod stayed away. Dreadnought shooting killed nothing and he forgot machine spirit would have allowed a flamer shot from the landraider.

He then disembarked his terminators and 4 attacked Doom and 1 attacked the carnifex. End result was that Doom died (even with good rolling there were too many hits) and the carnifex sliced up the termy attacking him. He then withdrew his terminators back into the landraider for safety.

My turn the Zoanthropes and the 2nd carnifex came down and one unit of genestealers came on back left. Zoanthropes shot at the landraider and missed (so far in all games my Zoanthropes have yet to hit anything, sigh). Genestealers attacked the two dreadnoughts, stunned them and lost one stealer in return. I tried to bring the 2nd carnifex down right behind the landraider to block it in but it scattered 10” away to the left, sigh.

So, Genestealers, Carny and Swarmy all attacked the landraider, I also attacked it with the termagants as, although they could do no damage they blocked the exit. I now had all exits blocked so if I could stop it moving the terminators were stuck inside. Swarmlord and gaurds attack, nada, all miss or fail to penetrate. Genestealers then attack and make like monkeys in a safari park, ripping everything possible off the landraider. End result, vehicle immobilised and its main weapons ripped off. Carnifex then attacked and ripped off the remaining guns. Landraider was unable to do anything and the boys inside were blocked in, Swarmy did a little dance of joy….

Tyranid Points: 2 Wolf Points: 1

Turn 3
Last wolf pod came down and the Longfangs jumped out (this is when the picture was taken), Dreadnoughts attacked the genestealers and one was killed for no stealer losses (dice gods were really with me, 18 stealer attacks and I rolled 10 rendings!).

My turn the last stealers came on but unfortunately on the right so played no part in the game. Termagants shot at the longfangs and killed one. Hormagaunts on the left charged the Longfangs, killing them all except the leader. Carnifex charges the dreadnought and between it and the genestealers kill it with no losses.

The landraider posed a bit of a problem. Terminators can’t get out but if I attack it I risk it blowing up and killing lots of my bugs and not hurting the Terminators, so I pulled back all the bugs and shot it with the Zoanthropes. Unbelievably they actually hit and killed it and did blow it up, nobody taking any damage. My bugs then charged in so the 5 terminators were faced with Swarmy and his 3 guards, 1 carnifex, 15 hormagaunts and 10 genestealers – something around 91 attacks, 30 of them rending and 5 of them instant death. End result was the loss of all Terminators for a couple of Genestealers, Swarmy killing 2 on his own.

Tyranid Points: 7 Wolf Points: 1

At this point, as there was only the leader of the LongFangs left alive we called the game finished.

Thoughts
- I love this list, it is seriously lethal and the Tervigon is just nasty (even when you read the rules right!), pumping out Termagants and buffing swarmlord with feel no pain.
- I definitely made a mistake deploying on the table. When we talked afterwards we both agreed if the wolves had taken the risk and dropped behind my Tervigon they could have done some real damage. Yes they would have then died to the Hormagaunt assault but they could have put some serious hurt on me first. Swapping 20 Wolves for 10 Termagants didn’t work, but swapping 20 wolves for a Tervigon and, maybe, Swarmy would work
- Having (mistakenly) used them, Hormagaunts with adrenal and toxin are horrendously lethal. Str 4, I 6, wound on a 4+ and reroll all failed to wound rolls against enemies with less than or equal strength (ie marines!). I’ve gotta work out how to get them into the deployment somehow.

The one question I have is, how would this list defend itself against a Guard Valkyrie list (ie. 5 Valks stuffed with flamer and melta toting guardsmen?) Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Reply Out:


Well, the ‘wolves are going to have a hard time explaining that back at the ‘fang- we got punked by bugz!

I enjoyed reading the battle report, and the pic looks like you have a great store/club.

You were lucky the fangs had plasma and las over missiles, but I’d guess this is b/c a lot of dudes play marines and that is a marine killer combo- las to pop the transports and then split fire to plasma cook the guys inside. Missiles would have layed the hurt on you.

Poison on the gaunts with furious charge/preferred enemy buffs makes then really killy, most dudes aren’t ready for it- mastery is in the delivery system of it since you have to pilot two huge swarms at a minimum across the table. They need to work together with Swarmlord to really be effective- think of using them all as one giant squad even though they are different units.

Blog readers what do you think?

-Fritz